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Thursday, December 27, 2018

To Dr. Priscilla Chan (and everyone who is hungry): food for thoughts.

 To Dr. Priscilla Chan (and everyone who is hungry):
 food for thoughts.

Dear Dr. Chan,
For a long time I have been criticizing (and still am) the approach many philanthropists (including you) select for improving education in the U.S.A.
Recently I have learned about your effort to establish a school in East Polo Alto.
That prompted me to send you this letter with a copy of my note in my piece on the matter:
If you would decided to invest a couple of hours into study of my “recipe” for reforming education (which, honestly, is perpendicular to the mainstream views), at the minimum you would broader your views on education in general.
With best wishes,
Dr. Valentin Voroshilov
_____
In my 2016 “Searching For Visionaries” post I wrote:
“A visionary is not the one who can see things farther away than others, nowadays everyone can utilize binoculars or other instruments to see things afar. A visionary is the one who can see NOW, what others will see much later.”
Since then I wrote many more posts on education (evidently), but my search for a visionary philanthropist has not yet been fruitful.
The critical pieces in the third part of this webpage include descriptions of the efforts of several foundations.
My critique is not about what they do – I admire the efforts to help children getting better education.
My critique is about what they claim – they all claim to reform, reshape the whole system of education.
I have addressed that claim in my pieces.
Here I just want to repeat again that all those foundations will prove is that if you have enough money to hire enough good teachers and to provide to teachers and student good learning environment, students will be learning better than students in other schools.
Affecting the whole system of education requires much more than that; and that is the reason for me writing all those articles listed above (Don’t believe me? Read them!).
Here and now I will only repeat one major feature of the only approach which will make a difference (if applied right) – the openness (some specifics can be found in this posts).
With best wishes,
________
P.S. I care about education. That is why I use different forms of communication in my attempt to reach out. The rest depends on how good founders are at finding people to work with. And on how strong is their curiosity. A butterfly effect exists.  But it only can happen in a system in a state far away from equilibrium. When a mind is set and rigid, it only accepts information which fits in the already familiar set of patterns.
A copy of a note from the main page.

am not an idiot or a reckless person. The reason I can allow myself writing what I think, even if that is perpendicular to commonly adopted and conventional views, is that my financial situation is sufficient and stable. Of course, as a normal person, I wouldn't mind making more money, or being involved in more interesting projects (as described in my generic resume). But I do not have to pretend to be someone I'm not to make my living. 

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